Tag Archives: downloads

Did you know you can count listening to audiobooks for the Summer Adventure? If you find yourself hesitating, the article Audiobooks Are Not Cheating (FREE poster offer) | Books on Tape has some great arguments in favor of recorded books. My favorite reason is that you can listen to a book in the car without getting a headache (the way you would reading with your eyes).

If you want to check out audiobooks from the library, you have a couple of options. We have books on CD (pretty self-explanatory), Playaways (those things in the orange boxes), and downloadable audiobooks.

Playaways are a little like having an iPod with something already downloaded on it. These are getting popular because not everyone owns something to play CDs on anymore. All you need to do is stick in your headphones and press play. Alternatively, you can use a cable to connect a Playaway to a car stereo so that everyone can listen to it together. The Findaway World company has details here: playaway-cars

Another option that you might not notice if you’re just looking at our shelves is downloadable audiobooks. The Digital Collection page of our website lists the different options for downloading audiobooks. At the bottom of the page, you can find help pages for the different apps and some guides to device compatibility.

Need a recommendation for a good audiobook? There are awards especially for audiobooks, like the Odyssey Award (for titles for children and young adults) and the Audies (for books for adults, children, and teens). The Association for Library Service to Children also puts out of yearly list of Notable Children’s Recordings, which includes both audiobooks and music (lists from past years are also available).

If you want to see just the children’s items, go to SETTINGS and turn on Kids Mode.

Click BROWSE and you can see a list of audiobooks, movies, music, comics, ebooks, and TV shows.

What are some of the items you can check out?

Browsing through music, you will see some of our most requested items, like Kidz Bop and Disney collections.

The audiobook collection includes picture books featuring the popular Pete the Cat, beginning readers, Minecraft titles, and chapter books ranging from Beverly Cleary to Neil Gaiman.

Comics has old favorites like Archie and Garfield and new favorites like Big Nate and My Little Pony.

Movies has kid favorites like The Land Before Time movies, old favorites like The Muppet Movie, adaptations of picture books like The Gruffalo and Mo Willem’s pigeon stories, and some new and popular options like Equestria Girls.

Television includes popular PBS Kids shows like Arthur and Super Why, and educational programs like Bill Nye the Science Guy and language learning Dino Lingo.

If you have previously downloaded the Zinio app, you know it was a multi-step process to get the magazines from the Recorded Books portal into that app.

There is a new app available called Zinio for Libraries. Using this app, you can seamlessly switch back and forth between Zinio and the Recorded Books portal to checkout magazines and read them right on your device.

When you load Zinio for Libraries, it will ask for your account information – accounts must be created at the Recorded Books portal. Once you are logged in, you will see a button on the bottom of the app screen that says “checkout magazines”. Clicking this will take you to the Recorded Books portal and log you into that portal at the same time. From here, you can check out the magazines. You can also read them using the Recorded Books reader, or return to the Zinio for Libraries app, swipe down on the home screen until you see a rotating icon. This will tell the app to search for new content that has been checked out.
Magazines that have been checked out will now appear on the home screen. You can tap the icon of the cloud with an arrow coming out of it that will be toward the bottom right corner of the magazine cover to download it to your device. If you do not wish to download the magazine, you can read it in a web browser after checking it out by clicking the “Start Reading” button that appears in the Recorded Books portal after checking out the magazine.

Please note: if you want to “keep” the magazine for later reading, you will need to download it. Downloading it is the only way that you can be assured you will continue to have it even if the magazine subscription is cancelled or the magazine shuts down.

Also note that previously checked out and downloaded magazines may not be available for transferring to the new app. You may still need to keep your old Zinio app to access these materials.

August 20 is the 125th birthday of H.P. Lovecraft, author of “The Call of Cthulhu.” So, let’s celebrate with children’s books!

From the moment I saw Julia Keller’s review of Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom, I knew I would have to get my hands on it. It took a while to find (you’ll see, if you click on the link, that the review is several years old) but it is well worth the time of comics readers who like a good, scary book. I’d recommend it for approximately age 10 and up.

Troll Hunters by Michael Dahl is dedicated “To H.P. Lovecraft, speleologist” and is partly inspired by Lovecraft’s works. An ancient evil awakens underground and four friends discover they have powers to fight it. The story was originally published as four shorter books, starting with Skyfall.

Lastly, a series that reminds me of my own rodent-infested school days watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer is Tales from Lovecraft Middle School. In book one, Robert Arthur enters the school as a new student suddenly separated from his elementary school friends. Strange things are definitely going on, which his science teacher attributes to the plans of the “Great Old Ones”– in between outbursts of disturbing gibberish. The first three books in the series are also available for download from Overdrive.

My boss just shared an article she found about the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland and how the book has been, and is being, published in multiple languages. At the top of the article, you’ll see a slideshow of illustrations from Alice in Wonderland.

Since Alice in Wonderland is old enough to be out of copyright, you can also find some versions online for free. Project Gutenberg has it available in German, Esperanto, and Finnish. manybooks.net (which is compatible with the Go Read app on our nooks) offers the story in German, Esperanto, and Italian.

With the latest upgrade to the computer catalog, you might have noticed some new records for ebooks that say “OverDrive.” So what is OverDrive? It is a service that lets you download ebooks and eaudiobooks to your phone, tablet, ereader, or desktop computer. OverDrive has recently added a kids and teen “eReadingRoom” website that lets you browse just the children’s and young adult books. You can find popular series like the Magic Tree House or Harry Potter, as well as some nonfiction. You can find Lexile information for a book, or search for books to match a reading level and interest level (that is, something appropriate for your age). You can also use the Advanced Search to find books in languages other than English (currently, Spanish, French, and German). Be sure to sign in with your library card to see all the books available to you! You can also place holds on books if there are no copies available.

All the youth content is still available on the regular PinDigital site as well. Nothing has changed there.

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By now, you might have already heard that we have put our storytimes and other regular programs on “pause” while we get ready to move into the new library. You have probably also heard that the library will be closed while we move from the old building to the new building. So what can you do instead of going to storytime at the library? How can you take care of your homework while the library is closed?

We’ve been working on gathering that information for you. You can find library closing and reopening information on our website. It includes the “last chance” dates to do things like request a book through Inter Library Loan, tells you where to find online help for your homework, points you to local libraries where you can check out books or use computers while the Fountaindale Library is closed, and even says what we will be doing with the old furniture.

If you need some things to do with your family, take a look at the Local Activities we list on our website. They include schedules for storytimes at local bookstores (and at Panera), nearby museums, places to enjoy nature or indoor sports, and more. You can also find ideas in our parent and teacher links for crafts to make and things to do together as a family.

Children who are looking for things to do might also want to look at our Fun and Games links, which have both online games and ideas for things to do offline, and our links to sites where you can read a book online.

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